The Crafternoon Treats road trip scarf CAL

The Crafternooners is a new Facebook group that I set up after members of the Bagalong group said that they would like to look at other projects beyond bags… So far we have started to get to know each other and have shared what we have been working on but many people in the group have said they would like to work on projects together.

Blogland has several big crochet alongs – CALS, for short – going on at any one time. The most recent in the UK has been the Lily Pond CAL run by Janie Crowfoot in association with Stylecraft Yarns. New ones are appearing all the time and I am going to look at putting information into the group files about these.

But it would be nice to do some smaller, easier projects together. Not everyone wants to do a large and complex blanket (or even a large and easy blanket) as they do take an awfully LONG time.

A few days ago I made some suggestions about what we might do and the first project is going to be a road trip scarf CAL. When I first heard this term I had to ask what such a thing was too! Its a simple shawl-like scarf that is easy to do on a long car journey as a passenger. So, variegated yarn or just one colour of yarn and an easy, memorable pattern. It makes a pretty fashionable scarf too and you can decorate it with tassles, ribbons and flowers as you want to make it your own design.

This one has been made by a Crafternooner long before the group started – thanks to Lynn Drever Atkinson for allowing me to share it:

I have never made one and am really looking forward to starting this. I bought quite a lot of variegated sock yarn a while ago but its going to take YEARS for me to use it to make socks. I still have only got into the first rows of the cuff of my second ever sock. Bags have taken over! I also have some special yarn that I’ve been saving for a project like this. Its really luxurious and contains some silk but I only have a small amount.

It will make a great project to do out in the garden, on a day trip, a train journey or just when chilling in front of a programme I really want to watch. I don’t know about you, but trying to do something hard when watching Long Lost Families is always a disaster!

I hope I can produce one as nice as this, made by Karen Heazlit Sites from Ohio 🙂

The road trip scarf CAL pattern and tutorial

This is not my pattern I must stress. It is a pattern devised and presented by Zelna Olivier from South Africa, who has a blog called Zooty Owl. She has a lot of fun patterns on there so its definitely worth more than a quick look just at this scarf.

On a sadder note though, when I went to the blog to leave a message that we were going to use the pattern for a CAL, I saw a message that Zelna’s mother passed away at the beginning of July, so I don’t think she will be spending time blogging just now. I’ve left a note of sympathy and mentioned what we were doing and hope she will be pleased when she has time to read it.

Here are the links you will need

• The road trip scarf CAL tutorial
• The road trip scarf how-to (longer than the pattern but not as detailed as the tutorial)
• The printable road trip scarf pattern

I asked The Crafternooners to post pictures of road trip scarves they had made already – so that I could share them here. The good thing about working in a group is that these lovely ladies will be on hand to help if those of us who have never done one before get stuck or run into difficulties. Our lovely admin Vicky Stanton has done THREE!!! And they are all fabulous:

More mini-CALS coming up

Many people liked the idea of a crochet cushion cover so I will be putting my mind to that in the next few weeks. A flower garland was also suggested and I am working on that at the moment. And bunting was extremely popular. I’ll be sharing some links but I really want to do my own pattern and tutorial for some bunting that I’ve been wanting to make for ages.

If you have any other ideas for crochet-alongs, do leave a comment. You don’t have to be part of The Crafternooners Facebook Group to join in: I’ll post regular updates of projects here on my blog xxxxxx